Utilização de modelos didáticos para o ensino de biologia celular para alunos normovisuais e com deficiência visual

Abstract

Biology is simply defined as the science that studies life and its relationship with the environment. This subject can be found in the National Curriculum Parameters for High School, being organized into different areas. The study of cell biology is a bases for understanding life, but the microscopic size of cells and their structure are factors which demand the use of specific tools for better understanding. These are difficult for a teacher to have access to. Visually impaired students, who have gone through an inclusion process over the last few decades, need new strategies for understanding cell biology. These could also be applied to improve the quality of learning for normally sighted students as well. Thus, this aims to build and apply a didactic sequence that involves the participation of normally sighted students in the making of three-dimensional cell models, using materials such as cardboard, styrofoam, air dry clay, among others. The models should be applied to teaching the subject to the visually impaired. The use of cell models made by normally sighted students with three-dimensional materials can facilitate visually impaired students development and improve the learning process for students in general. The making of these models might even lead to building a sensory museum. Discussions and the models presentations throughout the classes will serve as evidence of student learning. In general, the results showed that teaching cell biology through the use of active methodologies provides greater commitment and involvement from the students, as well as the interest from the students to participate in new projects in which they were the protagonists of their own learning.